Steam Engine | Steam Power
Steam Engine | Steam Power You can learn how to build a steam engineand produce your own steam power for energy independence. Building a steam engine is a bit complicated but it is definitely worth it to produce your own steam power using mostly waste wood.
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Are You Tired Of Outrageous Electric Utility Bills? This Book Shows You How To Set Up Your Own Power Station In Your Back Yard.
Electricity- Make It, Don't buy it
This is the story of Wes Gordon and how he found energy independence with Steam and how he revived a business producing steam engines. He calls his business SteamGen, and this is his story - Steam engines to produce steam power.
Starting Out...
After years in the boom-and-bust aviation business we'd had enough. Twenty years ago my wife, who was six months pregnant with our first child, and I bought 120 acres in the Ozark Mountains.
We started out living in a 40 year old, 30-foot travel trailer I bought for $1000. I had to replace the rotten floor in the bath, repair the leaky roof and replace the plumbing as the last owner did not drain the pipes before they froze.
We bought a "Small Cabin Solar" package from RV Solar Electric for $500 and two golf cart batteries from Sam's Club. There was enough power to run the propane refrigerator, water pump, lights and fans during the hot summer months. The solar system has been absolutely maintenance free.
We have replaced the golf cart batteries four times as the most you will get out of a battery is about five years. The water was supplied by rainwater off the roof stored in two 55-gallon drums. Hot water was supplied by a solar bread-box style, homemade water heater.
Many summer baths were taken in the creek. We have learned what it takes to live with Alternative Energy! We considered installing a wind generator but we could not find suitable plans for building one. We like to build things so we didn't want to just buy a wind generator to produce our power.
GETTING BETTER AT IT
Are You Tired Of Outrageous Electric Utility Bills? This Book Shows You How To Set Up Your Own Power Station In Your Back Yard.
Electricity- Make It, Don't buy it
Before we started producing steam power with our steam engine, We built a new house using lumber cut on a Wood-Mizer L15 model band saw mill. Wood-Mizer has been around for 45 years.
They are international and they have a great "Resharp Service" to keep your saw blades at their best performance. The L15 comes with many accessories that you pay extra for in other brands. With one extra bed extension you can cut a 14-foot-long, 28-inch tree. You can find used sawmills at The sawmill exchange as well.
Our new house included a Large Cabin Solar System from RV Solar Electric- We received great service from them. Our new system had a software issue between the remote controller and the inverter. RV Solar Electric FedExed a new circuit board for the inverter the same day.
This also says something for FedEx. We are so far out in the woods that if you go any farther you go into the next town! We have three 120-watt solar panels that feed a 1250 amp/hr forklift battery. This feeds our home with 120AC through a Heart Freedom 20 inverter. When power needs are greater than what the inverter can supply, we have a steam engine powered 10KW generator to power the well pump, shop tools, welders and air compressors. The only power we have is a Steam engine for steam power.
Are You Tired Of Outrageous Electric Utility Bills? This Book Shows You How To Set Up Your Own Power Station In Your Back Yard.
Electricity- Make It, Don't buy it
WATER FOR THE HOUSE
We have three 1500-gallon water tanks. Two of the tanks are 100 feet above the house on a hill that gives us about 38 psi at the tap using gravity only. The first tank we installed is about 30 feet above the house. The pressure from this tank was only about 17 psi.
We have an "on demand" (no tank) style propane water heater. It uses a differential pressure valve to turn on the water heater burner; 17 psi is right on the edge for turning on the water heater; 38 psi is more than enough.
FUEL SOURCE INDEPENDENCE
We built our own Steam Engine Powered 240 Volts AC (30 amp) Generator. There are basically two different ways to electrify your home. You can either use low voltage throughout the home, 12/24/48 Volts Direct Current (VDC) or the standard 120 Volts Alternating Current (VAC). Low voltage water pumps and appliances are very expensive, plus the cost of wiring for low voltage.
My choice was to put the money in a very good 120/240 VAC generator that I can use on a tractor or with a steam engine as they run at the same RPM. A 10KW, Power Take Off (PTO) generator can be purchased from any ranch and farm supply stores for about $1500.
WHY DO WE NEED A SUCH A LARGE GENERATOR?
The answer is simple. My water well is 523 feet deep and it takes 9600 watts to start the 240 VAC submersible well pump. After the pump is running, it uses only 2500 watts. I fire up the boiler about once a month to fill the water tanks. While I am filling the tanks, I charge the battery and power whatever shop tools I need with the excess generator capacity. To fire up the boiler and run the generator is not quite like walking over to a switch to turn it on.
This requires a certain amount of work and attention. I have developed a good system to line up all my big power needs on generating days. We use the steam engine's exhaust to heat the house. I have modified the steam system to heat water only for home heating when power generation isn't necessary.
Are You Tired Of Outrageous Electric Utility Bills? This Book Shows You How To Set Up Your Own Power Station In Your Back Yard.
Electricity- Make It, Don't buy it
STEAMGEN IS BORN
The use of a steam engine to power a generator is a mature technology. However steam power is no longer used in every day applications and the common knowledge of steam power is fading. Word had gotten out that I had a generator that did not use refined fuels. People came to see my steam engine powered generator and asked if I would make one for them. This is how our company, SteamGen was started.
WHY STEAM? Water is the only liquid that can carry such a large amount of "latent heat". What is latent heat? It is the amount of heat that is required to turn all of the water in a closed container to vapor without actually raising the temperature of the water. All the heat energy used to boil off the water is now waiting to do work. A steam engine converts this heat energy to rotary work.
It's the EXPANSION of steam that is important! for Your steam engineIt's the expansion of steam, not the pressure that is important. One cubic inch of water at 150 psi at 366F will expand to 1700 cubic inches of water vapor (steam) at zero pressure, an expansion ratio of 1700 to 1.
To show the greater work energy in steam we can compare the expansion of one cubic inch of compressed air. At 150 psi at will only expand to 150 cubic inches at zero psi. This shows why many internal combustion engine conversions of rotary air motors (the so-called steam "turbine") to steam don"t work. These conversions do not give the steam time or room to expand as they are designed to operate using pressure not expansion.
This is designed into the original construction and it can not be changed through a "conversion". All the latent heat energy is exhausted to the atmosphere and wasted. A true steam engine is designed for the expansion of steam, using the latent heat energy.
IS STEAM POWER EXPENSIVE?
There is no competing with the up-front cost of any generator that uses refined fuel (propane, gasoline, or diesel), or in convenience.
The question always is, What do you do when natural disasters, earthquakes, ice storms or hurricanes cause you to be isolated from your fuel source, just when you need it most? The natural disasters can also cause the price of your fuel to be driven sky high.
Just try shoving a stick of firewood down that carburetor to make that gasoline-powered generator run! The cost of buying five years worth of diesel will equal or surpass the up-front cost of the steam engine powered generator unit (that is assuming that you already have a supply of wood available at no cost except for your labor to get it from the backyard to the firebox.)
The cost over five years is less than 
buying a cheap diesel generator. From our own personal experience, the greatest payoff is telling the global hydrocarbon cartels to stuff-it!! I do not want to rely on somebody else for my fuel source.
Are You Tired Of Outrageous Electric Utility Bills? This Book Shows You How To Set Up Your Own Power Station In Your Back Yard.
Electricity- Make It, Don't buy it
90% EFFICIENT!
The average steam engine is about 18% efficient, 75% of the heat cannot be utilized by the engine. Another 7% is lost in the piping and leaks. The 75% rejected by the engine does not mean that it is lost.
In a 10 hp steam engine there is 500,000-700,000 BTUs of heat at the exhaust; the best way to use a steam engine is to heat your house and your hot water! In the steam heating system, the steam engine is actually a "pressure reducing valve", all the while producing power!
The radiators in the heating system condense the steam back to water, closing the loop. "Closing the loop" creates a vacuum on the exhaust side of the engine, drawing out the exhaust, increasing the engines efficiency up to 20%.
The accompanying picture shows a display unit SteamGen used at the 2004 Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Wisconsin(previous page).
It was set up with a large radiator to show the heating possibilities of using waste heat from the engine exhaust. The radiators closed the system to make it a fully condensing system, reclaiming 25 gallons of water an hour, caught in the bucket under the radiator.
HOW MUCH WOOD DOES IT USE?
To make 7KW requires 140 lbs of dry oak per hour. The pile of wood in front of the tire is 140 lbs, or about 1.5 cubic feet of wood. There is 128 cubic feet of wood in a "cord" . Use less electricity and of course you use less fuel.
I have created an example of what you can expect in REAL results from a typical steam system using wood as your fuel source. (The propane tank shown on the unit was used only for my convenience during the show. It's not practical to use refined fuel to produce steam.)
INTERNAL ENGINE LUBRICATION
A steam engine has rings like the engine in your car, that need to be lubricated. In a steam engine we use "600w wet cylinder steam oil", which is formulated to cause an oil / steam emulsion in the cylinder. It takes very little oil to do the job. A five-gallon bucket bought at your local industrial oil warehouse 
will last you 10 years and cost about $60.
A five-gallon bucket is included with your purchase of a GenSet. We put the oil in the steam pipe before the engine to lubricate the rings. After the oil has done its job in the engine we have to get it out of the steam or it will put an oil film in your steam radiators, blocking the heat transfer.
Because small steam systems are no longer mass-produced the auxiliary equipment is no longer available. But information is readily available to make our own oil separator. We use a very large three-inch pipe "T" is an oil separator that I made from a drawing shown in a 1940's technical book written by Terrell Croft; "Power Plant Series; Auxiliary Equipment" for power plant operators.
It has a metal plate baffle welded inside the three-inch "T" that uses the impact of the steam against the baffle to separate the engine oil from the steam. After the baffle the steam has to make a 180-degree turn at the bottom, again losing any remaining oil through centrifugal force. I have very little oil in my reclaimed water.
Are You Tired Of Outrageous Electric Utility Bills? This Book Shows You How To Set Up Your Own Power Station In Your Back Yard.
Electricity- Make It, Don't buy it
SUPER HEAT
Running a steam engine too hot can be counter productive. Super heat "dries" out the steam. That may sound like an oxymoron. At 150 psi /366 degree F you have saturated steam. Any reduction in the temperature and the steam will revert back to water, which can damage your engine through hydraulic lock.
Super heat adds heat over the saturation point, vaporizing any small water droplets and also giving you more steam expansion. A super heater is simply a pipe that goes back into the boiler firebox to reheat the steam. My super heater added about 40 degrees superheat.
THE STEAM ENGINE
The engine is made by Semple Engine Co. 11 Danfield Rd, St Louis. This engine lists for $6500. It is a twin cylinder compound 3x4x5. That is typical steam engine designation meaning; the high-pressure cylinder has a three-inch bore; the low-pressure cylinder had a five-inch bore, both with a four-inch stroke.
This style engine is called a double expansion engine. The steam expands to twice the volume into the second cylinder, which extracts the same horsepower as the smaller cylinder. The engine is constructed in a "V" and is about the same size of a large motorcycle engine.
The pistons are 90 degrees apart. One piston is mid cylinder when the other one is at top dead center. This give a smooth operation and makes it impossible to have the engine stuck at top dead center, making this steam engine self starting.
THE Steam Powered GENERATOR
The generator is a standard (off-the-shelf) PTO generator made by Winpower that is used on a farm tractors PTO. The stovetop was used as a load bank for the generator.
If I have a good head of steam up I can turn on all the burners to HIGH, run the radiator fan motor (1/2 hp) and the battery charger used to power the 12-volt feed-water pump. Output was about 7 KW, 30 amps at 240 volts AC.
BOILER FEED-WATER
Making steam uses water out of the boiler. You have to replace that water, or "feed" the boiler water; therefore we call it "feed-water". There are two pumps; a 12-volt PumpTec.com high-pressure washer pump and an engine-driven Dayton twin cylinder high-pressure water pump. Both pumps can be used during the operation if needed.
Most people have access to a 12 volt battery, so the 12VDC pump is used to put water in the boiler before start up.
PRE-HEATING FEED-WATER
You don't want to heat water in your boiler. That may sound a bit odd, but it's true!! It wastes time and energy. You want to make steam in your boiler to power the engine. The water in the boiler at 150 psi will be 366 degrees F.
By bringing the temperature of the feed-water close to that level you keep cold water OUT of the boiler, which prevents thermal shock to the boiler metals.
Thermal shock over time will fatigue the boiler and cause it to fail. Feed-water preheat is supplied by a heat exchanger located at the (engine's) exhaust and an economizer (fancy name for another heat exchanger to pull more heat from the boiler) in the smokestack.
Feed-water pre-heaters reclaim heat from the engine exhaust and heat going up the smoke stack. Reclaiming this heat increases the GenSets overall efficiency. Using this set up, feed-water temperatures average around 225-250 degrees F.
Are You Tired Of Outrageous Electric Utility Bills? This Book Shows You How To Set Up Your Own Power Station In Your Back Yard.
Electricity- Make It, Don't buy it
ENGINE SPEED CONTROL
Steam engines need a "balance" steam valve connected to a mechanism to regulate the engine speed. This unit is called a speed governor.
A balance valve has equal pressure on both sides of the valve seat requiring very little force to move the valve seat from open to close or visa versa.
Centrifugal weights or "flyballs" regulate the engine speed. As the engine speed increases the flyballs swing out moving a rod against the balanced valve closing the valve and lowering the engine speed.
The inverse is true for low engine speed. These governors are no longer produced. I can usually find an old steam engine governor that has been painted, mounted and displayed on somebody's mantel.
This one was so glad to get off that shelf and go back to work. These old governors are very robust, usually only requiring some minor repair and tuning. I first thought that this one didn't hold the engine speed's real solid, but I was listening to a new fancy Honda generator that another vendor was using to set up their booth at the fair.
Every time he used his drill the generators speed fell way off. "Well," I thought. "My antique governor does better than that!"
THE ALL-IN-ONE UNIT!
The steam engine powered generator display demonstrated that you can power your house, heat your house and heat your domestic hot water all at the same time, using fuel found in your back yard! Try that with just a solar cell ! Steam engine for steam power.
A great way to run your home>> Steam power produced with Biodiesel!
<< Have a look at this great steam engine our friend built using the plans we found.
He runs it on Biodiesel !!!
<<just click on the steam engine